When the summer heat starts to dissipate somewhat in the early evening, I open all the people doors in our coop to let the breeze through and bring the temperature down. Then before I head to bed I close the doors up again to protect the hens from late night predators. The worst part of walking around the outside of the coop at night is running into a face full of spider web. To say I make strange noises when suddenly draped with sticky gossamer threads is putting it mildly. So I have learned, finally, to use a flashlight to see the webs before I envelope myself, and how to disarm the trap so I can pass by.

The webs spread across paths usually have three or four anchor points. It is amazing how these eight-legged critters establish the anchor lines as they drift around on the breeze, and equally wonderful that if you break one of the lines, the web collapses and the spider moves in the opposite direction. Away from the break and that which broke it! No spiders in my hair or crawling up my arm, no web across the path or on my skin, and eventually they stop setting up shop in that spot. This method of disarming also looks much more dignified than waving a stick in front of you as you walk, like a deranged wizard.

It is fascinating how the world works in ebbs and flows. I recently had a bug day, where I saw more photo-worthy bugs in one day than I had in two weeks. Was I a little more alert that day? Was I thinking more than usual about bugs? Did catching bugs in Animal Crossing bleed over into the real world? Or where there just more bugs out where I could see them? I’m not sure the answer, but I will share the photographic fruit.

What has the antenna of a butterfly, eyes of a house fly, wings of a dragonfly, and rests like a damselfly? (I guess I gave it away in the title, huh?) I have never seen an owl fly before. This one was resting on the wall of the house under the light when I went out for my morning walk. iNaturalist gave me the ID, and internet research tells me they are predators of flying insects and are often mistaken for dragonflies. Hm. Maybe I have seen one before, then. How easy is it to see those distinctive antenna in flight?

I was struck by the dark body and bold striping on the grasshopper perched on a fading hibiscus flower. It was also a good opportunity to take a picture of one to compare antenna size relative to a katydid’s. The grasshopper’s feelers are not longer than its body, unlike the epicness of the Meadow Katydid’s antenna.

The grasshoppers are still gorging on my hibiscus, but they don’t take the entirety of each leaf, which leaves the plant at least some photosynthesizing capabilities. I shoo them off, but it doesn’t make much impact.

The antennae on this critter!! I have found these in my garden before, and had trouble photographing their sweeping feelers that seem to reach over three times their body length. I did not realize that they are a kind of katydid and that the immense antenna length is one of the distinguishing factors between Katydids and Grasshoppers. It matches the abelia bush nicely too, with its stem-colored stripe down the back.